Small Canon Search™

337. IV. CONSEQUENTLY, THAT LOVE TRULY CONJUGIAL IS NOT POSSIBLE EXCEPT WITH THOSE WHO ARE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. That there is no conjugial love such as is described in its special chapter (nos. 57-73) and in the chapters that follow it, thus such as it is in its essence, save with those who are of the Christian Church, is because that love is from the Lord alone, and nowhere else is the Lord so known that He can be approached as God; also because, with each individual, that love is according to the state of the Church with him (no. 130), and the genuine state of the Church is from no other source than the Lord, thus is with no others save those who receive it from Him. That these two requisites are the first beginnings, the introductions, and the stabilities of that love, has already been confirmed by such abundance of clear and conclusive reasons that it would be entirely superfluous to add anything more. That love truly conjugial is nevertheless rare in the Christian world (nos. 58, 59), is because few there approach the Lord, and among those few are some who indeed believe in the Church but do not live according to it; not to mention the many things which have been disclosed in THE APOCALYPSE REVEALED, where the state of the Christian Church at this day is fully described. Nevertheless, the truth holds good, that there can be no love truly conjugial save with those who are of the Christian Church. Moreover, it is for this reason that polygamy has been wholly banned therefrom. That this is of the Lord's Divine Providence is clearly evident to those who think justly respecting Providence.